"It was purely for my students," Bell says. "Anything and beyond was a bonus."

While his videos are accessible online to anyone, he says they are supplemental and don't substitute face-to-face education. He doesn't have as much time to answer questions in the video's discussion forum as he does for his students.

"You'd still want to take a class," he said.

Bell's YouTube videos are part of a growing trend by TRU professors. Technology helps solve the old question posed in a recent viral video: How to engage students. TRU business professor Amy Tucker uses social media and rich multimedia to answer that question in her classes.

"You've got to get with the times," she says.

She set up Twitter hashtags for each of her courses to promote conversation, and she posts relevant material such as job openings and articles in Facebook groups she's created. She also uses social media to promote her classes and boost enrolment, as well as network with past students to get feedback and keep in touch. Her favourite class project is an Organizational Behaviour course where students learn team building by creating a documentary together. It's like a research paper, but she says it's harder to create something worth showing your peers.

"It makes everyone more accountable," she says.

Tucker encourages laptop use in her classroom, with just a couple rules: No porn or Ebay, she says with a chuckle.

He posts questions on a screen during class and students answer using the device of their choice like a laptop, tablet or cell phone. Swingle says it's a great way to track progress in real time.

"If half of the class missed it, obviously it needs to be covered again," he says.

While the software automatically tracks student progress and can be allotted to student grades, Swingle says it's more for learning than testing. And in the real world, students familiar with the technology in class are more comfortable when they leave.

"It's going to be there in their work environment," he says.

In more than five years of teaching at TRU, he says professors at the university have the option to teach their courses using the materials of their choosing.

But while some teachers are busy chastising their students for using their cellphones or even laptops in class, Swingle is more practical.

"In a business meeting, you probably have a cell phone on you."

To contact a reporter for this story, email: jwallace@infotelnews.ca or call (250) 319-7494.